1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assembly of housings containing communication equipment or other electronic equipment and connectable with each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, housings containing communication equipment or other electronic equipment are provided with cooling fans for discharging hot air from the housing to remove the heat generated from the equipment, and to introduce outside air into the housing.
In many cases, the housings are arranged adjacent to one another, so that it is impossible to exhaust hot air from the side faces of each housing. Conventionally, therefore, the housings have intake ports and exhaust ports in the front and rear faces, respectively.
The prior art housings are constructed as shown in FIG. 1, for example. In FIG. 1, two such housings are connected to each other. Each housing comprises frames 1, front wall 8, rear wall 9, and side walls 10 (one of which is removed in FIG. 1). It contains therein chassis 4 which is mounted with electronic equipment. The chassis 4 is provided with cooling fan unit 11, and is supported in position inside the housing by support plates 3. Front and rear walls 8 and 9 are formed with intake ports 8a and exhaust ports 9a, respectively. Partition wall 6 is disposed in the housing, whereby the inside of the housing is divided into intake-side and exhaust-side passages 13 and 14. Intake-side passage 13 connects with ports 8a and one end of chassis 4, and exhaust-side passage 14 with ports 9a and the other end of chassis 4. Ventilating fan 12 is provided near exhaust ports 9a.
When connecting a plurality of such housings, the facing side walls of the adjoining housings are removed, adjacent frames 1 are coupled together by means of bolts and nuts which are schematically shown by a short line 2, and partition wall 7 is mounted on frames 1, as shown in FIG. 1. In this housing unit, air flows along paths indicated by arrows A to cool the electronic equipment in chassis 4. At the same time, the unit is ventilated.
In these prior art housings, passages 13 and 14 are necessarily formed on both sides of chassis 4. Therefore, the housings have a substantial width, requiring a wide setting floor area. Recently, in particular, the electronic equipment contained in the housings has increased its density of integration to produce more heat. Therefore, the flow rate of cooling air must be increased to cool the equipment. Thus, intake and exhaust-side passages 13 and 14 must inevitably be widened, thus further increasing the width of the housings.